We Build Small Biz Apps! lotusinterworks.com
2009 Blue Ribbon Small Business Award U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Call 310.442.3330 Today!
310-444-4444
20th Anniversary
Hybrid • Mercedes-Benz
not valid from hotels or with other offers • SM residents only • Expires 12/31/12
THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2012
SM to LAX $30
SantaMonicaTaxi.com
Volume 11 Issue 112
Santa Monica Daily Press
MATHEWS COLLECTS HONORS SEE PAGE 3
We have you covered
THE MEETING IN THE MIDDLE ISSUE
Council quibbles on living wage
SM Airport employee settles case, leaves job
New project will create class of ‘working poor,’ council member says
instead backing the Feb. 1 recommendation of the Arts Commission to wait six months for the money to come through. The Arts Commission felt that the
sued City Hall claiming he was denied a promotion based on his race and age settled his case for $200,000 and an agreement to leave his position. City Attorney Marsha Moutrie reported Tuesday that the case was “strenuously contested” by both sides, but that Vonnell Adams, an African-American with 17 years as an employee at the Santa Monica Airport, agreed to take the money and leave his post. Adams, 56, was disappointed with the settlement and felt “set up.” “I didn’t get a fair deal,” Adams said, reiterating that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go to court because of the unsure outcome of bringing a case before a jury. Adams filed suit in 2010 claiming that his supervisors improperly promoted a Latino colleague by circumventing the agency’s normal promotion procedures. He alleged that this was one instance in a pattern of racially-motivated hirings that excluded African Americans over the course of his 17 years on the job. A complaint filed in the Los Angeles Federal Court pointed out numerous instances of what Adams believed to be preference given to Latino employees over African Americans. In one instance described in the complaint, Officer Leo Iniguez helped Sgt. Jeff Wiles conduct a search for a new police assistant. An African-American woman was a member of the candidate pool. According to the complaint, Iniguez insinuated to Adams that she would not be hired for the position because “she’s black.” Adams alleged that this attitude went further, and ultimately led to Iniguez being promoted to lead airport service officer at the SMO substation over Adams himself, despite
SEE SCULPTURE PAGE 9
SEE SETTLES PAGE 9
BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
CITY HALL The airport security officer who
BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
CITY HALL The City Council Tuesday compromised on a living wage for future workers at a new hotel slated for 710 Wilshire Blvd., leaving neither business interests nor labor advocates happy. In a 4-3 vote, the council approved a wage rate of $11.29 or $12.54 per hour, depending on whether workers also received benefits. Tipped workers were excluded from the provision. The rate was a midpoint between developer Alexander Gorby’s initial offer of $10.64 and $11.89 per hour depending on benefits and a flat $14.97 per hour that workers rights advocates sought. The agreed-upon rate is still below the $13.54 per hour that outside groups pay their workers when they contract with City Hall. Councilmembers Terry O’Day, Kevin Daniel Archuleta daniela@smdp.com
SEE WAGE PAGE 10
CHANGES: The building at 710 Wilshire Blvd. is slated to be redeveloped into a hotel.
Council gives ‘Chain Reaction’ backers time BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
CITY HALL Supporters of Paul Conrad’s “Chain Reaction” sculpture have until Nov. 15 to raise money to save the piece before
city officials remove it from its public art collection. The City Council refused to allocate money to test and rehabilitate the 26-foottall sculpture designed by Conrad, a threetime Pulitzer-Prize winning cartoonist,
Andrew Thurm
WE CURE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT HEADACHES
GLUTEN FREE BREAD, BAGELS AND MUFFINS!
Now offering
Contact:
Prepared in a non gluten free kitchen.
310.442.1651
AndrewThurm@aol.com
310-829-9303
1433 Wilshire Boulevard, 15th Street 310-394-1131 OPEN 24 HOURS
2010 Realtor of the Year ROBERT KRONOVET
at
DRE # 01128992
Info@Kronovet.com